Sanctuary
by MarcusTheBloody
Summary: This story picks up with the events I started in "Finding" Purpose. It revolves around Wesley and the consequences of some of the choices Angel made concerning Drogan coming to LA and leaving the Deeper Well unguarded. Please R&R.


I have been working on "Finding Purpose" for a while and I have come to the conclusion that I have too many dangling plot threads in it for me to do it justice, so I decided to separate it into two different stories. It would be beneficial to read "Finding Purpose" before jumping into this story, but not necessary.

This story will deal with Wesley and the consequences of choices that Angel made at the end of Season 5. I am a huge Wes fan, so I had to "undead" him. Not in a brain eating stumbling around moaning way, but to find a way to preserve him that was within his character and story continuity.

To me Wesley is the ultimate soldier, in the fact that he follows orders in disregard to what his personal feelings are. Some have made comments concerning Wes that I should leave him dead since he wanted to die, which I think is correct, but greater still is his desire to do what is right, even at his expense. Even knowing that taking Connor would separate him from friends, he did it because he though it was right.

Wes had started out as a Paladin type character, but he got muddied a bit after the fallout with Angel over Connor. Then with Fred's death, he fell even further, leaving him character wise, fairly dark, yet he still followed Angel's orders, even after he come into his own.

So, as a good soldier, he does what is right, over what he wants – which is death. Release from the pain and responsibility. I don't plan on giving him that.

Though I do plan on giving him Sanctuary.

Wesley stepped off the plane and into the airport somewhat reluctantly. With his arrival back in England, he was starting over, just as he had when he left Sunnydale for Los Angeles, but this time there was not the sense of a new beginning. No, this was a new phase, but there would be no new beginning for him. The scar on his soul just wouldn't allow it.

The dweomers that he had constructed for the others were certainly active now, probably had been for some time now, and he hoped that it gave the others and opportunity to find each one another no matter what had happened. The was a part of him that wished that he had constructed one for himself so he could know if they were still alive, but it was probably better this way. Angel was the only one that knew the truth since he was the one that had set him on the path he was now.

The truth was that Wesley had faced Vail, though not the way that everyone believed. What had fought with and lost to Vail was Wes, sort of. What it was known as a humonculous – a physical and mystical manifestation of Wes, that he had astrally projected himself into, while actually on the plane, to do battle with Vail. When that body had been slain, his consciousness was brought back to his actual body, and had continued on the flight.

Wesley had wanted to stay and fight; possibly die with the others, but Angel thought that what he needed Wes to do was just as important as bringing down Wolfram & Hart and the Black Thorn. Angel said that he had chose him because Wesley had the knowledge to fulfill his task, but greater still, the ability see the big picture. Big picture aside, Wes couldn't shake the feeling that he was abandoning his friends in their time of greatest need.

Need. What did he need? What he needed was gone.

"Mr. Neal?" A woman's voice spoke from behind him.

Wes continued walking a few steps more when he realized that she had been talking to him. Tobias Neal had been the name of his closest friend while he had been at the academy training to be a Watcher. He had been unable to book the flight in his own name, so Tobias' had been the first name that had come to his mind.

Turning around to face the woman, Wes spoke, "Yes, I'm Mr. Neal."

The woman smiled at Wes as she thrust forward a handful of papers towards him, which he took from her.

"I hope you had a wonderful flight sir." She continued, "Everything is in order and a van has been prepared for your cargo."

Wes scanned the papers quickly before shoving them into the inside of his coat.

"Thank you." He said, as he turned back around and headed for the parking lot and the loading dock where he would find his van.

Wesley was almost out of the terminal when a man casually stepped out of a room adjacent to the exit. He was expecting the man, so it came as no surprise to Wes, though how he had gotten ahead of him without Wes seeing him leave the plane was uncanny. Wesley had exited the plane well before he had.

After picking up the van and checking to see if the casket they had brought with them was intact, they loaded their luggage and drove off together.


End file.
